The Phoenix CPA and his 6-year-old German shepherd mix will be reunited Tuesday after nine months apart, thanks to her toughness and some volunteers who just wouldn’t quit.

Case was in the Midland area last August helping a family member and for his extended stay he brought Roxy, an abused and undersized pup when he adopted her at 6 months.

“It took years to build up a trust,” he said. “She’s so shy and timid, if somebody came to visit me, she would immediately run out that doggie door.”

He was carrying her in his arms when they were approached by strangers. “She just leaped and bolted,” he said. The next day she was spotted in the farthest corner of a gated community nearby, shaking under a bush, but couldn’t be coaxed out. Then she was gone, and a long hunt began.

Case searched every day for weeks, checked the Humane Society of Midland County Shelter regularly and took out newspaper ads. New friends, made at the dog park, helped look. A police officer kept an eye out during her patrols. Construction workers in the area had Roxy’s picture on their phones.

One dark day, Case found a carcass that had been hit a few times and, thinking it might be her, brought it back to his rental house to bury before studying closer and seeing it was not his precious companion. Still, the day came when he had to return home.

He wasn’t alone, though.

“I’ve got another dog somebody found and thought was Roxy,” he said. It was a German shepherd mix all right, but without Roxy’s distinctive one ear up and one down, with some black in her tongue from chow blood.

Still, with no owner stepping forward he adopted him, “’cause I was missing my dog so much and this dog needed a home,” Case said. “Max is a good dog, but he’s not as smart and he’s not Roxy.”

As the months passed, he gave up hope.

“Roxy left a hole in my heart. I was sure she was dead, because she’s a domesticated dog, how could she survive over the winter?” he said. “That’s a long time to go, from August to now.”

But on Sunday, shelter volunteer Gwen Yeakle Malone got a text from a friend about a shepherd mix on Dow Chemical Co. property.

Malone had seen the dog in the Abbott Road area before but had assumed between the company and police she didn’t need to take action. Realizing that wasn’t happening and knowing shelter staff are not allowed to bring in stray animals, she contacted Dow.

“We went through security, and they went up a couple levels to get us approved,” she said. Unable to coax Roxy, they set a live trap and eventually got her that way.

“I used the catch pole to get her out of the cage and she came out like she was on a leash,” Malone said. “This poor dog, she knew she needed help.”

While she and Roxy waited for someone to take them to the shelter, numerous people stopped to offer help: coffee, water for Roxy, transportation to school for any children whose day had been disrupted.

At the shelter, workers knew immediately who their new ward must be and called Case, who saw photos and was ecstatic.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “She’s such a sweet dog and she’s had such a rough life.”

Roxy needs thyroid medication, he noted, but even after a winter outside looked healthy. “I don’t know who’s been feeding her, but she looks a little heavy even. Midland is a dog-loving community.”

Now it was time to work on getting her home, and last-minute airfare was out of his reach on his own.

Money wasn’t the only obstacle. Coincidentally Malone’s niece and her husband were flying home to Phoenix on Tuesday, but upon inquiring they found out Southwest doesn’t allow cargo dogs.

Beth Wellman, shelter director, said transporting dogs to Phoenix was out of the question for any airline. “They won’t fly them into pretty much any of your southern areas if it’s going to be 75 degrees or more.”

The best bet seemed to be San Diego, a 5-hour drive Case has made before. Contributions have been coming in, and at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday, Roxy will fly out from Detroit.

“I hope Max gets along with her,” Case said, describing his new friend as aggressive but good-natured. “Roxy is my baby, so if there’s problems, I’ll find another home for Max.”

People at both ends are anxious about the trip.

Malone said two volunteers will take Roxy to the airport.

She has been kept in shelter instead of foster because they know how wary she is, and they’re still working out the details of keeping her secure.

“When she’s been a runner for nine months, she’s good at it.”

Case, while saying, “I’m so happy, so pleased,” admits he is concerned as well. He worries that someone along the route will feel sorry for her and let her out, and she’ll bolt.